Wow. I added quite a few words today. 1469 to be exact. Good for me! (yep, I'm patting myself on the back right now)

This word count brings me to the end of Chapter Two. I managed to introduce the MC and one of the lesser antagonists--at least I think he's going to remain a lesser antagonist. Sometimes these things morph out of my control. But he seems like a sleezeball to me. Sneaky, underhanded, manipulative, and very determined to get what he wants.

My MC on the other hand is momentarily defeated--emotionally. I need to have her rally in the next chapter.

So I managed to catch up on my voice mail and emails at work this morning. There's lots of other stuff I should be doing-- like updating the department webpages, placing exams, or even working on the online catalog--but I'd rather be writing. Although, I know I can't dedicate the rest of my afternoon to the WIP, I figured an hour or so wouldn't hurt anything.

So, I opened the WIP and began by touching up the grammar and flow of last week's efforts. I'm sure today's "fixes" will still need another critiquing or two before they can be considered polished. After I finished with the adjustments, I began to work on the next scene.

Oh, boy.

It's funny how the little things can interfere with a word count. For instance, the current WIP's worldbuilding is loosely based on Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very thorough job in preparing myself. I had to interrupt my writing to go research AE weapons. The time before I had to interrupt the writing to go research mirrors. It's seriously crimping the flow!

So do I stop writing and submerge myself in the research? I don't think I can. If I stop writing on this story, even in the name of research, I'm going to lose touch with it. I know this. And yet the temptation is there. Jumping from mid-sentence to google searches is driving me crazy.

It makes me want to abandon the AE worldbuilding but I can't. It's not just the setting for the story. It's a character, in a very vague sense. My premise was built on this foundation.

Not to mention there aren't many fantasy books out there with a clearly AE feel to them in the genre. Most fantasy tend to feel medieval. I might be onto something good here. Maybe. Hopefully. If I can finish the novel....

I know I missed yesterday but I had good reason. Dad asked me to go to the courthouse with him. The judge awarded Donna a significant amount of spousal support, which grinds me because my dad doesn't have tons of money. I don't understand how a woman who has a college education and works between 20-35 hours a week as a surgical technician is entitled to that much money. My dad took all the bills--she walked away from everything but a credit card payment, insurance for her car, and her cell phone bill.

But enough of that. I can't change the outcome and complaining will only put me into a bad mood.

The highlight of yesterday was going out to eat with some friends and then playing cards. A good end to a crappy beginning. Guess you can't ask for more than that.

I haven't written anything this weekend. I'm possibly having company tonight so I need to get this house cleaned. So far I've given the stinky dog a bath, changed the kitty litter, done the dishes, done some laundry, and now I must tackle the bathrooms. Ewww. I hate cleaning bathrooms. They're just gross, especially the boys' bathroom.

I've been writing again. I'm almost afraid to tell anyone. I feel like everytime I do, I suddenly falter and the writing abandons me. So...it's a secret...I'm writing again.

I need a new title for the story but maybe it'll come to me after I've finished the first draft. I'm not going to stress on it. For now, I'm going to refer to this WIP (work in progress) as A New Start. ANS for short.

ANS is actually a story I've been working on for quite some time...two years, I believe. Of course, that's not steady working. It's on again, off again working. It has fallen prey to my biggest weakness at least a half dozen times. And what weakness is that, you wonder? (I'm pretending someone actually reads this thing) Well, it's the fact I can't seem to ever just sit down and start a story with any amount of satisfaction. I have a tendency to trash the whole thing after I've written anywhere from 10-50 pages.

I'm not doing that this time. I've started writing and I'm going to continue on, leaving the worry of whether or not I've gotten the beginning right for the revision process.